"Seek ye first the kingdom of the heavens and its righteousness, and all these things (which are recounted), shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

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Comparison of the kingdom of God:

1. With the human body from inmosts to outmosts; and therefore concerning that society wherein the Messiah is the Soul, and which shall form one body as one man.

2. With the kindred in the house of Abraham and Nahor.

3. With the land of Canaan and its bordering countries.

4. With the Paradise of Eden.

5. With a marriage and a feast.

[For the above comparisons, see:

(1) n. The Word Explained 596 seq.

(2) n. 567-568.

(3) n. 477 seq.

(4) n. 498 seq.,

(5) n. 586.]

Men are men only so far as they walk in the way of truth. But so far as they turn aside therefrom, they approach to the nature of a beast.

14. Jehovah God formed [man], dust of the earth, or, as Castellio renders it, from the dust of the earth; (7) namely, formed his body, that is to say, his flesh and bones together with the embodiment of the blood; or all those parts which do not have active life but suffer themselves to be acted upon by life; for the soul was drawn from heaven. Whether man was formed immediately from the earth, and thus without passing through his periods from infancy to manhood; or whether he was formed mediately from an egg and so forth, may be left to the faith of the reader. Since, however, a single day signifies an entire space of time or a lapse of many years, he might also have been born from an egg, and the egg have been produced not immediately from the earth's ground but mediately by means of the fibres of some vegetable object or tree, whereby the essences that were to pass over into his blood might be rectified. If this be the case, he was nevertheless formed of the dust of the earth; for everything that passes through the roots or fibres of vegetables is from the earth. The fact that all things were brought forth according to ends, even intermediate ends, which were foreseen and provided for,--and thus were brought forth mediately and in their order — derogates nothing from, the divine omnipotence. For all things still followed on to the effect according to His bidding, that is, according to the foreseen and thus pre-established laws of His most wise order.